Breaking the Curse

Chapter Eleven: Herculean Effort

“I'm fine, and I don't need a shrink,” Daniel insisted as he pulled on his coat, his shoulders aching with the effort. He had been bruised rather badly in the fight, and Sam was still treating him like he was broken. She hadn't left his side the entire time he'd been in the hospital. It hadn't been as long as some of his other stays, and for that he was truly grateful because he hated hospitals. He had a concussion, they told him, and that explained why his head hurt so much.

“Daniel, you... you just let him hurt you,” Sam said, touching his arm. She looked at him, pleading with her eyes. “I'm not saying that you have to go to therapy, but what you did scared me. I thought I might lose you there for a bit. And you promised. You said, up there on that hill that you were going to try not to leave me again, and you... You didn't.”

He looked at her, wishing that Jack wasn't in the room, and that he couldn't hear this. The other man certainly didn't look happy with what he'd heard. “Sam, I—I let Stephen get it out of his system, that's all. He wanted to fight; I didn't. That's all it was.”

Sam shook her head, clearly not believing him. “Daniel, I—“

“Are we going to argue all day, kiddies?” Jack interrupted. “Because, let me tell you, it's getting old. Come on, let's get Danny Boy back to the SGC. Fraiser can do a look-see, and then we'll head out to my place. We'll have some beers, kick back—“

“Jack, I am not going to a barbecue, and I will not be looked over by Janet. I've had doctors poking at me all day. I'm fine. I got a few bumps, but I wasn't that badly hurt. I'm ready to go back to Colorado. This whole trip has been ruined for me. I'm tired, and I want to go home, and I don't want to argue about this any more,” Daniel said, aware of a pout in his voice. He hated himself for it, but they were treating him like a child. He knew what he had done must seem stupid to them, and they didn't understand it. He wasn't sure that he understood it himself. He did not want to talk about it, though. That much was certain.

“Let's go,” Sam said flatly, looking over at Jack. She didn't seem to be very happy with him, either, and Daniel didn't like how much that pleased him. It shouldn't, and he knew that, but if Sam was perhaps a little disenchanted with Jack, if that trend continued... Maybe she would someday see past her blinders, see beyond her feelings for Jack. That was a rather foolish hope, wasn't it?

“We haven't settled any of this,” Jack began, looking first at Sam and then at Daniel. It was too late for his efforts to command them. Daniel wasn't about to listen now. He just wanted to get home, away from all of this, to be alone. Only when he was alone could he try and pull himself together again.

“We're not going to settle this,” Daniel told him. “Not the way you want, anyway. We're going back to Colorado, you're going to leave me alone, and then when the time I requested off is over, I have two days left, I'll come back to the SGC. That's it. Settled.”

“Daniel,” Jack began again, but he saw Sam shake her head. Finally. Finally they had accepted what he had said. He knew Sam better than to expect it was all over. She would take up the subject again as soon as they were alone again. He didn't mind. He'd rather discuss it with her than anyone. And he would rather do it without anyone else listening to them.

There were things that were better left between the two of them. Only them. If he ever got up the courage to tell her.

Sam walked into Daniel's lab, looking around nervously as she did. She knew that the trip to Chicago had not been what he had planned on, hoped for, or expected. She knew that it wasn't her fault, but she still felt a bit guilty about it. It wasn't that she had caused the fight, and she was still scared of what might have happened if she hadn't been there. On one hand, she might have been in part the cause of the fight, Stephen seeing her there with Daniel, and on the other, she had probably saved Daniel from... Who knows what Stephen would have done? Would he have gone all the way? Would Daniel be dead now?

He looked up as she came in, taking off his glasses with a sigh. “Sam, if you've come to lecture me again—”

“I don't want to lecture you, Daniel, but I do want to talk,” she told him, reaching out to him. She touched his arm, and he looked for a moment like he would pull away. She almost pulled back, but then he didn't. She wet her lips and forced a smile.

“I'm not so sure I want to talk, either, Sam,” he told her. “And I'm not just avoiding you, you know. I've got a whole television crew to dodge as well.”

She smiled a bit at that. She'd already had her own encounter with Bregman and his crew, and his sexism had been a bit hard to take. She'd been grateful to avoid him after that, putting him off with the other team going through the gate. She knew he'd been back to see Daniel, but she'd heard he was off with Teal'c, so they were safe for now. She hoped, anyway.

“Daniel, I—“ She stopped, wondering what exactly she could say. “I don't want to make you angry, or even just frustrated so that you won't talk to me. I don't want anything to come between us, our friendship. I want you to know that. I'd like it if you would talk to me about what happened. I've been going over it in my head, and I don't like what I come up with... Daniel, I know you're self-sacrificing, you always have been, but you didn't have to take that from him, and not for me. I was fine. I could have handled it, and I did. He caught me off-guard, and I can't forgive myself for that, but please...”

Daniel reached over and placed his hand on top of hers, sighing deeply. “Sam, I've been trying to figure out a way to... Look, it isn't easy for me to do this. I don't know what to say. It's like, when Stephen hit me, it all came down at once. All the guilt over Sha're, Sarah, about not being able to save them, about Abydos and Anubis, and I just... I froze. I let it happen because at that moment, I thought... I thought that it should. And I know that doesn't make it right, Sam, and I'm not trying, necessarily, to justify what I did—what I didn't do—but I don't want to go over it again. It was a mistake, and I... I'm not going to let it happen again, I promise.”

“Daniel,” Sam began, unable to help herself. She was torn between pity and fear, and a strange admiration despite the fact that he'd nearly gotten himself killed. It struck her again, just how much he cared. He cared about everyone and everything, and that was special, and rare, and it was a miracle that he hadn't gone mad years ago. Any sane person would have by now, surely, and yet he hung on, he stayed, and while he stayed, he made things better for everyone. She was lucky to have him in her life, and she had never forgotten that, but now it seemed stronger, more important to keep him here. She thought about his ascension, how they'd all lost him. She'd been devastated, and she had no one to turn to. Teal'c had held her as she cried, and she would never forget that, especially since it seemed like the stoic alien was showing more emotion than a man who called himself Daniel's best friend.

She didn't want to let Daniel go, not ever again. She'd tried to make him promise that, but it wasn't something he could. She felt like a child for wanting it, but as he had said at Pete's funeral, death was unnatural, and no one knew how to cope with it.

The klaxon rang out, followed by the inevitable, “Unscheduled off-world activation.”

She looked over at Daniel, who was reaching for his glasses. She wasn't ready to leave his side yet. “So... Want to go see what that was all about?”

“So what effect has the Stargate program had on your personal life, Major?” Bregman asked, and Sam winced. Her personal life? Did he know about Pete? Was that why he was asking? And how dare he ask that? This was... This wasn't right. He shouldn't be able to ask that.

“I think that's too personal a question,” she said stiffly. “I thought you were here to talk about the program, not about my dating habits or lack thereof. Whatever. That's personal.”

“Okay, okay,” Bregman began placatingly. “What about your teammates? Can we discuss your relationship with them? How do you feel about Colonel O'Neill?”

“Ah...He's an amazing man. After everything he's done, he's still modest, quite self effacing actually. He even likes people to think he's not as smart as he really is,” Sam heard herself say and then wondered if that was just wishful thinking. The colonel seemed to enjoy being stupid. He always interrupted her technological explanations but still expected her to make things work when it was impossible. “Bottom line: He's an incredibly strong leader who's given more of himself for this program than anyone has given for... Well...anything I can imagine.”

Bregman watched her with interest. She tried not to squirm. What had she said that made him get that look? That reporter going for the kill look? “You spend a lot of time together outside of work?”

“We don't get much time outside of work,” she said, shaking her head. She thought of the last few weeks and smiled. She still hated the circumstances that had led to their “geek week,” but she really missed that time. She shook off the memory. “When we do our personal interests are little different.”

“Did you ever hear the expression: opposites attract?” Bregman pressed, and Sam realized with horror what she'd said. Oh, god... She'd given herself away, all right. Damn it, how did she fix that? Sure, the documentary was unlikely to be seen anytime soon, but...

She smiled tightly. “We have a very professional relationship.”

“Really? Do you...” He trailed off like he didn't believe her. She supposed that he was right not to. They had feelings for each other, even though their relationship was professional. They'd left in that room. End of story. Only it wasn't, because it kept biting her in the ass. She had to do something about this. “Professional? After everything you've been through ... You must have—maybe if it's not too much to say...faced death together?”

“Yeah...not unlike countless Military personnel through out the years,” she agreed. “Look I won't deny there's not a bond between us. All of us. Daniel and Teal'c are also like family to me. Teal'c like a protective older brother, and Daniel...”

What was Daniel? Her best friend? Her soul mate of the mind? She didn't really know how to describe him. He wasn't her brother, though. Oh, god, if she was having thoughts like she had in the last couple weeks about her brother...

“Major?”

“Daniel is a wonderful, kind, giving man. He's helped me through a lot of rough times, and I've come to depend on him. He's the heart of the program, did they ever tell you that?” she asked, smiling as she remembered what the colonel considered whining but she believed was the conscience of the SGC talking. She shook her head again. “Anyway, the colonel is first and foremost my superior officer.”

“Right, so... Let's talk about the Stargate program, shall we?” Bregman said awkwardly. “What do you think about it going public?”

Sam swallowed, uncomfortable, and perhaps a bit afraid. At least he wasn't asking her about the colonel...or Daniel anymore.

Daniel knocked on the door to Sam's office, watching her work on the device that SG-13 had sent back through the gate. She was intent on it, so focused that she didn't even hear him knock. He loved seeing her like this. It was his favorite look for her, lost in discovery. She was such a beautiful woman, but it was her mind that fascinated him. “Hey.”

She looked up at his voice, giving him one of those killer smiles of hers. “Hey. One sec.”

He waited awkwardly in the doorway for a second, shifting on his feet. He didn't know what to do. For some reason, he didn't want to just walk in. Weird. He was never out of place in Sam's lab. “You...err...want me to translate something?”

“Yeah...I'm just trying to get the interface connection more stable. SG-13 really kicked the crap out of this thing,” she muttered as she continued to work on it, twisting wires. He had no idea what she was doing, but he knew Sam and trusted that she would make it work. “Its system log seems to be isolated on a separate crystal from memory control.”

Still feeling awkward while she worked, he cleared his throat. “You know, Bregman actually had the nerve to suggest that all that archive video footage I gave him was boring?”

Sam looked at him, somewhat sympathetically, but mostly unsure what to say to that. He shrugged. “Okay, I know that not everyone finds the discoveries we make fascinating. It's different for you. Any new technology is of interest to everyone. But for me... This stuff is amazing. It's unbelievable. These parallel human settlements, the way these planets have evolved... Sometimes it seems like no one cares about that but me.”

She shook her head, smiling at him. “No. I care. Really. I just get a little bit distracted by shiny things.”

They both laughed, and Daniel found himself wanting to touch her. He winced. “Well... You know what really bugs me about Bregman? The only reason he's here is because this president's on his way out, and he knows it. He just doesn't want to look bad if and when the Stargate program ever goes public. None of this is about truth; it's all about political posturing.”

She nodded. “Man, he really grilled me on that.”

Daniel frowned. “What, why the Stargate program should go public?”

“Yeah.”

He was curious now. He always found her opinion intriguing. Well, not her opinion of Jack, but the rest of the time, yes. “What'd you say?”

She shrugged. “Babbled incoherently.”

He nodded, watching her tweak the machine some more. The whole day had been rather unsettling. “I mean, could you imagine if it ever did...?”

“I try not to think about it,” she said as she made another adjustment. The computer blinked, showing writing, and he walked over to it. Nothing wrong with being close to her if he was translating for her. Sam changed something else, making the picture clear. “There.”

He read through it, not understanding most of it because it was technical. He was fluent in many languages, but technology had never been one of them. “This is mostly just technical stuff.”

She leaned into him, and he caught the scent of her shampoo. She smelled good. “Anything jump out at you?”

“Well, here's where it encountered SG-13,” Daniel pointed to the screen. “Uh-oh.”

“Wait, what uh-oh?”

He looked at her, hating to be the one to give the bad news. “Well, after it engaged shields and weapons it activated a long range communicator.”

They'd gone into a war zone. That wasn't anything new. It happened a lot in this job. Sam saw men running across the field. Guns and staff weapons were going off all around her. There was Alkesh and gliders moving across the sky, lots of explosions bombarding the area. She knew their situation wasn't good, and she focused on following the colonel. He fired and moved to a position by Dixon behind a rock, where they shot on oncoming Jaffa.

“Hi, Jack. Thanks for coming,” Dixon said when they reached him.

“I was told you said there was six Jaffa. Where did you learn to count?” the colonel demanded as they took fire again. Sam went around to another ruin and started firing from her new position.

The radio cracked, and she heard an airman say, “Colonel O'Neill, our position is being compromised. We're not going to be able to hold the gate for long.”

“It doesn't matter we're not gonna be able to hold this position for that long.” Sam heard the colonel's voice, and shook her head. There had to be something that they could do. She didn't like fighting a losing battle, but Janet and Daniel were out there, somewhere, and they needed to get back, too. She'd hold them off as long as she could if it meant bringing them back safe.

Janet's voice came over the radio. “Colonel, I need more time to stabilize this patient; he can't be moved yet.”

At least it sounded like Janet and Daniel were okay. Still, Sam would feel better if she could see them. They were too far away. If something happened... She looked up as the Alkesh got close. Oh, hell, they were in for it now. She started to fire again. “Sir, we have to fall back!”

Someone launched a grenade at the Jaffa. The ground exploded, and he was knocked off his feet. The whole area was becoming chaotic. Sam could hardly keep track of the others, and she didn't feel like she was doing any good here. The colonel rose, and she was about to shout at him to watch out when a staff blast hit him square in the abdomen. The blast knocked him down to the ground.

“Sir!” She screamed it. She should have said something, been just a little faster.

She got to her feet. Teal'c looked over, but continued to fire. She could see the Alkesh coming around again. They had to get out of here. They had to get the colonel out of here.

She rushed to his side. He was out. His eyes were shut, and he was not moving. She shook him, calling to him. He still wasn't moving, and she could see the smoke moving off him.

“Over here!” Daniel heard someone call as he and Janet came over the hill. They found two men there, one trying desperately to keep his friend alive. “Man down. Over here. They're here, Simon. That's good. There's a lot of blood coming from underneath him. I'll cover you from the ridge.”

Daniel figured the other man was at least in shock himself, but he let him go so that they could concentrate on the wounded man. Janet knelt next to him. “I'm Dr. Janet Fraiser. Can you hear me?”

The airman gasped, speaking in a muffled, pained voice. “Yeah....hurts so bad...I can't move... can't feel my legs... I think it went right thru me!”

Daniel knew that he had to keep the other man's mind occupied so he wouldn't think of the pain. What's your name?”

“Senior Airman Wells—Simon Wells...” The other man started to panic. “Am I gonna die?”

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Janet insisted firmly. She looked at Daniel. “We need to roll him over, and stop the bleeding... Simon, you hanging in there? Okay, easy... All right on three. One...two...three ...

Wells screamed in pain as they turned him onto his back. Daniel tried again to distract him. “I'm Daniel Jackson.”

“I know, I know...SG-1...”

Daniel looked at Janet. It bothered him that he was 'famous.' “You're going to be fine—”

“Son of a bitch...he came out of nowhere!” Wells exclaimed, still in pain. “Shot me in the back...”

“Let's talk about something else right now, Simon,” Daniel told him, searching his mind for another topic. Home. Things back home would motivate the man to stay around. That was good. “What's going on at home right now?”

“My wife...she's pregnant...”

“Yeah?” Daniel asked, feeling worse. If the airman did die, that would leave a young child without a father. “This, uh... this your first? Congratulations.”

Janet did something to Simon, and he screamed. “That's good! At least you felt that!”

A voice came over the radio, interrupting them. “Colonel O'Neill! Our positions been compromised! We're not gonna be able to hold the gate very long.”

Janet spoke into her radio. “Colonel! I need more time to stabilize this patient; he can't be moved yet.”

“You can't help me! Leave me!”

Janet shook her head. “Nobody is going anywhere.”

Wells turned away in anguish. “I can't believe I'm not gonna see my son!”

“Okay, just stay focused, stay focused,” Daniel said, ignoring the fact that his hand was full of blood, from holding the bandage over Wells' wound. “So, it—it—it's a boy you're going to have?”

“Tell me the truth...I'm not gonna make it, right?”

“You will be fine,” Daniel told him as he held up the IV bag.

“Doctor Jackson,” Wells started to panic again. “Please! Please! Just let me tell my wife! Let me tell my wife that—“

He broke off, screaming in pain. Daniel looked at Janet. She nodded, and he handed her the IV. Daniel dug into his bag, getting his camera.

“Got it...Breathe, Simon,” Janet said, soothing the injured man as she inserted the IV. “ It's okay, Simon.”

“Okay, you tell her yourself,” Daniel encouraged after he'd gotten the camera ready. He pointed it at Wells, letting the other man speak.

“I'm so sorry about this...love you so much,” Wells stopped as the pain got bad. “God, I just—I just wanted—God! God shut it off! Shut it off, I don't want her to see me die ... Please, God.”

“Simon, Simon!” Janet said forcefully. “Look at me; you are not going to die, okay? I did not come all the way out here for nothing. Now, we've stemmed the bleeding. We're going to get you to a stretcher. We're going to get you home with your family in no time, okay? Now you hang in there, Airman.”

“Yes, Ma'am,” Wells agreed, and then a staff blast, with its bright flash of light, shot past Daniel, towards Janet. She fell back with a cry.

“Oh, god what happened,” Wells asked, “is she hit?”

“Janet!” Daniel called desperately. He hit his radio. “I need a medic! Fraiser's been hit. I need a medic.”